Where Do Hospitals Get Off Publishing Magazines? And What Do Magazines Provide That Traditional Advertising Can’t?
Notable Healthcare Advertising
// By Peter Hochstein //
It’s getting to the point where publishing magazines is starting to seem as commonplace in many hospitals as taking patients’ temperatures. Well, almost.
“The data collected over the last ten years shows that approximately 60 to 70 percent of all hospitals send out a printed magazine or newsletter to their community,” says Alan Coffey, Chief Executive Officer of Coffey Communications in Walla Walla, Washington, a company that produces magazines for hospitals.
Coffey gets that statistic from an annual survey conducted for his company by Professional Research Consultants, Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska.
“The number remains relatively high, we believe, because these publications consistently positively impact the community and the organization’s bottom line,” Coffey says.
But just how positive can the impact be? Consider the case of one of Coffey’s clients, the 101-bed Feather River Hospital in Paradise, California, an Adventist Health facility.
“In 2004, we did our first community perception survey,” says Maureen M. Wisener, the hospital’s Assistant Vice President, Marketing & Communications. What it revealed was that “the community didn’t understand who we were as an organization. They didn’t understand the capability that was available right here. They were leaving the community to go elsewhere for the same services we offer because they did not know they were here.”
Publishing a magazine three times a year was a key part of what helped to change all that.